The set is well-designed, but there is pretty much nothing unique to this set (I'm sure pretty much all of it could be built out of parts from 8877, minus the black horse) so overall it's not much of a standout. 6.5/10

I bought two of these. Good parts and the jelly-bean knight that comes with it isn't too ridiculous. If you combine two sets you can make a really kick-butt prisoner wagon that captures the spirit of the designer's intent, while not changing the design much. If LEGO bricks were a tad cheaper this could have been an amazing little kit. But overall I like this set; during the era of the jelly-bean knights many sets were too juniorized or featured questionable design decisions; this set's only really lame feature (in my opinion) is the catapult, which is simply silly. But then KKII featured horse-mounted catapults, so this isn't too bad in that regard.

I'd rate this set as a "buy", and if you like shadow knights, "buy multiple".

Username wrote:I wish the green face mask came in the speckled black or dark bley.

This may be slightly off-topic, but I'll make it quick. This word "bley", is it supposed to refer to blue-gray? Just curious. Never heard that word before I came to this forum. Thanks.

bley refers to the new (2004 and onwards) grey, which replaced the old grey. It's called bley because it's bluish compared to the original. Many people were... upset... when the colour changed. LEGO promised to never change the core colours again, however I think since then they have changed some of them. Anyway, most people have now accepted the new colours and it scarcely bears mentioning, except when you need to compare the new grey to the old grey.

I had this set once. I enjoyed it for a while but to be honest my primary reason for buying it was the horses . This marked a small step in the right direction following castles greatest ever disgrace, kk2.1 .8/10 for being tied for the best set in its theme.